


rolling .... into the hospital

by asanoyatwink



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: ASANOYA FOREVER!!!, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Bisexual Nishinoya Yuu, Bottom Nishinoya Yuu, Comfort, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, I Will Go Down With This Ship, M/M, Minor Character Death, Needles, Nishinoya Yuu & Tanaka Ryuunosuke are Bros, Nishinoya Yuu Has Panic Attacks, Nishinoya Yuu Has Trypanophobia, Nurse Azumane Asahi, Nurse Yachi Hitoka, POV Nishinoya Yuu, Panic Attacks, Patient Nishinoya Yuu, Tanaka Ryuunosuke is a Good Friend, Top Azumane Asahi, Trypanophobia, for both of them, he's such a good nurse too, they both go through some shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:54:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28119507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asanoyatwink/pseuds/asanoyatwink
Summary: imagine falling in love with your nurse.yeah, noya can relate.ornoya broke his ankle doing rolling thunder, and his super cute nurse is there to help him recover.
Relationships: Azumane Asahi/Nishinoya Yuu
Comments: 11
Kudos: 105





	rolling .... into the hospital

Well, that had been the end of 'rolling thunder', needless to say.

One fateful night where the one thing Noya was eventually expecting to happen, happened. His left ankle, the one he's not so great at handling his whole weight on, finally gave all it could give. He cringes. The sound of that sickening pop resonates in his mind, even hours later.

Luckily for him, Tanaka was helping him practice receiving and was able to drive him to the emergency room. Of course, with time, they did surgery and put a cast around his ankle, but no pain compared to the doctor's words:

"You might not be able to play volleyball for a while, Nishinoya-san."

Tanaka's head had swooped around, in awe and disbelief. "Like, you mean ever?!"

The doctor lowered his head, tapping his pen on the clipboard. "With time, maybe, but not for now."

"And exactly how long is this recovery gonna take?"

"About a month and a half or two, closer to two ... it's pretty bad."

And Noya's mood had gone from bad to worse. It was the ongoing downhill progression of emotions, and he hadn't even hit rock bottom yet. With a groan, his hands rub over his face, somehow bored, agitated, and lonely out of his mind sitting in that hospital bed. He doesn't have the TV on, he isn't on his phone, and all he can hear aside from his own noises of dismay is the wooshing of his blood pounding in his ears. It seems to increase by a few beats when he growls, this time louder, followed by a choked-off breath.

He's not sure exactly how to feel, aside from destitute and pissed the fuck off.

He surveys the room for the thousandth time, eyes tracing over the white border of the walls, drifting back down to the fake wood of the floor, then even further so to his own bed, that pale blue and almost natural hospital smell of it. The whole room smells like a hospital, for fuck's sake, he wonders why.

Tanaka had stayed with him for an hour or so, though they had little to talk about since they were both there to experience it. He seemed to get the memo that Noya didn't want to talk, anyway, so he did his casual bow, although it seemed softer, almost apologetic. Ryuu. Through his agony, Noya smiles. He doesn't deserve a best friend like him.

"You think they're gonna poke you?" Tanaka had asked, squeezing Noya's hand a bit.

"I don't know. They put me on anesthesia and I still haven't come down yet, but I think it'll start hurting again soon." Noya's replies had been short and half-assed, because, like he said, he was mad. Not mad (entirely) about the situation, but because he probably wasn't going to play volleyball until next year. "I sure hope not."

Tanaka had stayed silent, because he knew why. After a moment, he spoke up again. "How pretty do you think your nurse'll be?"

Noya almost smiled. "I don't know. I hope she's cute."

His thoughts are interrupted by two shallow knocks on the door, and without a thought, he answers, "Come in."

The door opens, and with curious eyes, Noya watches as a ... rather cute guy comes strolling in. He's about six foot tall in stature, pretty lanky, goatee, and ... hmm. Man bun. This is, by far, the only guy he's ever met --- well, watched --- that can wear a bun successfully. He turns around and shuts the door, a bit of a smile on his face like he's in a good mood. He looks down at his laptop, looks back up at Noya and says unsurely, "...Nishinoya Yuu?"

Tanaka basically jinxed him with the cute nurse thing. Oh god oh god oh god oh god. Noya beams. He can't pinpoint whether he's acting like this because it's his personality or because he already has a major crush on this guy. "That's my name, don't wear it out!"

He smiles a little bigger at that, setting the laptop down on the counter adjacent to Noya's bed. "It's nice to meet you, Nishinoya-san. Now, tell me, how did you break your ankle, exactly ...?" He has a bit of a nervous edge to his voice, scratching at his shoulder through his ... almost mossy green scrubs. It looks good on him, needless to say.

And his voice, god, his voice. It's so sweet and soft.

"It's, uh... kind of a funny story. I have this move, since I'm a libero --- oh, you probably don't know what that is. I just play defense, basically, in volleyball, and I have a rolling receive called 'rolling thunder'. Apparently, my left ankle bent wrong, and here we are." Noya's fidgeting already, playing with his fingers, face getting progressively redder. His pulse, curse it, speeds up ever-so-slightly.

"You play volleyball? I used to play volleyball!" Cute man-bun guy's eyes seem to light up automatically.

"Oh cool, what were you?"

"I was the wing-spiker and the ace."

And suddenly, Noya's already developed an attachment to this guy.

"Oh, uhm, I'm so sorry, where are my manners --- I'm Asahi, and yeah, I'm your nurse," Asahi chuckles awkwardly, one hand coming up to brush a stray hair out of his face.

"Asahi...? 's that your last name?"

"Oh, no, no, I usually let people call me by my given name, y'know, so they're not, like, nervous around me or anything." Asahi types at the keyboard some, in thought for a moment, then laughs a bit. "My last name is Azumane, if you were wondering, but I try not to come off as unfriendly or too demanding, especially to people younger than me."

Oh god. Jesus save Noya's poor soul, he is so fucking into this guy already. "I'm younger than you? You look like you're fresh out of college!"

"I kinda am, but you're ..." His eyes scatter across the computer screen, clicking his tongue as he reads. "28, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I'm a year older than you."

And about a foot taller than him.

Asahi walks over to the bed, sitting down on Noya's left side, making sure not to sit anywhere near his injured ankle. "Broke it playing volleyball, hmm ... can I take this off?" He points at the blanket, and after a beat, Noya nods. Noya took that the very wrong way, and the sudden flush of his face lets Asahi know the same thing. His head jerks up for half a second, and he leans back in.

Oh god. Noya's already panicking.

"Oof. Yeah, that's definitely broken." Asahi examines around the area, gentle touches and brushes of fingertips. Noya really shouldn't be thinking of it like that, since he's just another patient, but it's really, really hard not to. "You should really be more careful, Nishinoya-san ... I mean, I'm not saying that in a derogatory way, not at all! It's just that you should take care of yourself first, rather than worrying about volleyball or practicing."

Since he's pretty, Noya takes Asahi's words a bit too seriously.

"And, really, I'm in no position to say that, but I do mean it." Asahi pats the bed next to Noya's hip, and smiles. "We wouldn't want you getting banged up!"

Yet Noya wants to get banged up. And not in the broken bones way, but by this guy. Though, on the contrary to his thoughts, he just smiles back. This isn't like him, he's already getting nervous and a touch shy. Usually he's the loudest person, often chaotic and erratic, but Asahi shuts him up somehow. Seriously. He's only known Asahi for, like, ten minutes.

"Okay, the doctor's already prescribed your pain medicine, right?" Asahi picks up the computer and rests it on his forearm, leaning against the counter in an overly hot way.

Noya only answers with an 'mhm'.

"Great! Well, since I'm your nurse, I'll be seeing you once every ... five hours for both your food and your medicine. Congratulations, you're stuck with me three times a day for the next two months."

What a rollercoaster that's going to be. Though Asahi says it sarcastically, Noya's excited. He even giggles a bit. "Cool!"

"Alright, Nishinoya-san, it's about 10:30 ... when did you last eat?"

"Uh, about seven."

Asahi does the math on his fingers, counting quietly. "So, I'll be seeing you within the next seven hours for your breakfast. Speaking of which, you might want to get to sleep," he remarks, walking back over to the door. "I'll have to wake you up, so please don't bite me if you're tired."

Noya laughs. "Can't promise anything, nurse."

Asahi grins again, opening the door. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Nishinoya-san. Good night." He bows just enough to notice, then exits, shutting the door behind him.

Wait, he bowed? That's, like, only a thing kouhais do to their senpais as a sign of respect, or a sign of ... friendliness. Noya's mind goes blank, and he grabs his face while laying back down. "Really?" He mutters aloud, pulling out his phone and opening the calculator app.

"Three times a day for the next two months," he repeats, typing in the equation. 

Three times in one day, therefore 21 times in a week ...

4 weeks in a month, so 84, and two months ...

"Holy shit."

168.

"Oh my god," he covers his mouth, tossing his phone onto the bedside table. "I get to see my hot nurse 168 times in the next two months." He groans loudly, tilting his head away from the door and towards the window, watching the stars momentarily.

He's exhausted, and it's just now setting in. That adrenaline rush distracted him. Breaking his ankle, practicing hard and experiencing a brand-new crush all in a few hours is tiring.

With that, Noya blinks off into dreamland, staring at the night sky.

☆

"Nishinoya-san," He's awakened by a gentle, quiet tone. "Nishinoya-san ... it's time to wake up."

"Mnnh ... no," Noya grunts his disapproval, absent-mindedly grabbing another pillow and shoving it over his face. "don' wanna."

A laugh, and a soft hand on his shoulder. "Please. I brought you food."

Something clicks in his mind with the term 'food' and the realization that that's the voice of his hot nurse, and he's up. "Okay, maybe," he slurs, blinking until he can make out just about every feature on Asahi's face. "Yay," Asahi claps a little, beaming something bright.

God, he's pretty.

"Thank you," Asahi giggles, setting the plate and plasticware down on Noya's moveable tabletop.

"Oh my god. Did I just say that out loud." Noya's hands reach up to slap his face.

Asahi carefully pries those hands away. "Yes, you did."

"Colossal dumbass," he murmurs to himself. "Fucking colossal dumbass. Okay, Asahi, as my nurse, I'm gonna ask you a favor here --- take that plastic knife and drive it through my chest, please." 

"Uh, no? No harm done, Nishinoya-san, don't worry about it. And, also, don't say that about yourself, you're amazing." He's hiding laughter, and Noya can tell. "But! Before I can give you food, I have to give you medicine, so please excuse me for just a second." Asahi strolls back out the door and down the hallway.

While he's away, Noya examines the food. Eggs, bacon, and milk. Yup. It actually looks pretty good, considering he generally thought hospital food was just like school food. School food is the lowest bar on the food quality scale, so it really couldn't be much worse. The smell, though, is making his stomach growl. He didn't really realize how hungry he was.

Hungry for both the food and Asahi. He groans again, thunking his head onto the table. How could he have said that out loud?

Asahi's back, walking in the room with a tray.

And Noya can make out a needle. 

"No, no, no," he murmurs, backing away as far as he can get with a broken ankle.

Without saying anything, Asahi sighs, picking up the needle and the cleansing wipes, hesitantly moving over towards Noya like he doesn't want this either. "Nishinoya-san. It's okay, it's only for a second, yeah?"

"Asahi. Don't. Please." Noya's voice breaks, and he's panicking.

"Hey," he coos, sitting next to Noya, holding the needle away from him, comforting him with the other hand. He rubs his arm, his shoulder, and the part of his back that he can reach. "I don't like this either. If it makes you feel any better, this is gonna hurt me way more than it's gonna hurt you."

"No, no, please, Asahi, don't."

Eyes darting around the room, Asahi finally rests on Noya, offering out his hand. "You can squeeze my hand if you want?"

If Noya were completely stable, not hyperventilating, then he would've accepted that offer with a fluttering heart. But his heart is already fluttering, for another reason. He watches as his own shaky hand reaches out for Asahi's, and instead of the normal, just hand-in-hand grasp he was expecting, Asahi laces their fingers together, squeezing a few times. "It's gonna be okay, Nishinoya-san. Just focus on your breathing."

Noya nods, unsure, and looks in the other direction, out the window. He tries to focus on the clouds partially covering the morning sun although it's hard to when Asahi rubs the cleanser on, god, Noya knows what's about to happen --- 

He hears Asahi's whisper of 'one, two, three...' before the sharp pain of a needle pierces his skin. He yelps and grasps Asahi's hand, hard, but before he knows it, it's over. Asahi's shushing him and putting a bandaid on the little puncture wound. "Shh, shh, it's over. It's okay." He disposes of the needle in the biohazard trash, then comes back to sit down and rub circles into Noya's hands. "I'm sorry," Asahi mumbles. "I don't like seeing people I care about in pain."

Noya's mind lingers on that. Asahi cares about him.

"No, it was my fault, I --- I just have bad anxiety around needles." He looks down at Asahi's hands massaging his own, and feels some spark go off inside him, that felt oddly like the one he felt when he first met Asahi.

"I have bad anxiety around lots of things," Asahi smiles, trying to reassure him, "crowds, spiders, failure ... but I try not to let that stop me, y'know? I mean, you're already tough as nails, so I don't think a little pinprick could stop you. No pun intended." Asahi snorts at his own joke. "And, trust me, having a fear of something that is very sharp and pokey is normal."

Noya smiles half-heartedly. "T-thanks."

"Anyway," Asahi begins, standing up and stretching — he probably just woke up as well, "before I scare you any more, I'm gonna let you eat your breakfast in peace, okay? If you ever need me for something, little red button," he gives a tug on the cord, cut off by a switch with a red button labeled 'In case of emergency, press the button', "I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Asahi." Noya gives a little bow.

Asahi mimicks his action. "Anytime." With that, he leaves Noya alone to his own thoughts and, more importantly, breakfast.

☆

Within the time between when Asahi left and around lunch time, Noya's been curled up in bed, texting Tanaka and watching Youtube because he's still just a teenager at heart.

that guy's got a huge tanaka (9:31 am) : dude how's it goin up there!!! i miss u a lot ;(

rolling thunder (9:31 am) : ahh i miss u too ryuu!! but it's going pretty good except my HOT NURSE STABBED ME IN THE ARM WITH A NEEDLE AT THE BREAK OF DAWN

that guy's got a huge tanaka (9:31 am) : WHAR

that guy's got a huge tanaka (9:32 am) : first and foremost WHY WERE YOU BEING STABBED

that guy's got a huge tanaka (9:32 am) : SECOND, WHO IS SHE

rolling thunder (9:32 am) : FIRST AND FOREMOST, bc they had to give me my medicine somehow

rolling thunder (9:33 am): SECOND AND SECONDMOST, IT'S A HE. 

rolling thunder has sent an attachment (9:33 am).

Noya cackles. "Guess I'm bi," he reads out loud.

rolling thunder (9:34 am) : ryuu are you there

that guy's got a huge tanaka (9:34 am) : OK MR. BISEXUAL, WHO IS HE

rolling thunder (9:34 am) : HIS NAME IS ASAHI AND HE'S A FUCKING SWEETHEART. UNRELATED BUT I TOTALLY GOT TO HOLD HIS HAND EARLIER AND HE LIKE RUBBED MY SHOULDERS BUT I'M NOT COMPLAINING.

that guy's got a huge tanaka (9:35 am) : DAMN NOYA AIN'T EVEN BEEN IN THE HOSPITAL FOR A DAY AND HE'S GETTIN ASS ALREADY. U GO YUU

that guy's got a huge tanaka (9:35 am) : OK WE KNOW THIS ASAHI GUY IS A TOTAL BABE BUT LIKE. WHAT'S HE LOOK LIKE.

rolling thunder (9:36 am) : HE'S REALLY TALL?? LIKE 6 FT TALL? AND HE'S GOT BROWN HAIR AND BROWN EYES AND A REALLY LIGHT GOATEE AND A MAN BUN BUT. IT LOOKS SO GOOD ON HIM. HE'D MAKE YOU GO BISEXUAL TOO.

that guy's got a huge tanaka (9:36 am) : I GOTTA FUCKIN MEET THIS GUY. LIKE RN I'M SEEING SOME WESTERN GOATEE YEEHAW MAN AND I REALLY HOPE HE LOOKS PRETTIER THAN THAT LMFAOOOO

rolling thunder (9:37 am) : HOW DARE U CURSE MY MIND WITH THAT IMAGE RYUU U BITCH. YOU'D FUCKIN LOVE HIM. HE'S AMAZIN. U GOTTA COME OVER TODAAAYYYYYY

that guy's got a huge tanaka (9:37 am) : I WILL SEE YOU, AT THE LATEST, 10:30 AM.

rolling thunder (9:38 am) : OKAY. ILY BRO.

that guy's got a huge tanaka (9:38 am) : ILY TOO BRO.

Noya puts his phone down, staring up at the ceiling momentarily. He's unaware of how excited he got talking about Asahi until he hears the frantic pulsing of his blood in his ears. "Oh, shit," he laughs, taking slow, deep breaths and hearing his heartbeat even out. When he's satisfied with his heart rate, his head hits the pillow with a thump, and he looks at the bandaid on his arm, remembering how Asahi comforted him through his panic attack, how he offered to let him hold his hand, how he immediately consoled him afterwards. 

Ugh. He's already questioning his sexuality and he's gotta survive like, 166 more times seeing Asahi.

Speaking of which, he's super tired since he got four hours of sleep, so he tries to rest his eyes before he has to deal with both Tanaka and Asahi at the same time. Consequently, he nods off to sleep again, thinking of nothing but happy thoughts.

☆

He awakens to the same two, shallow knocks he associates with Asahi. "Nishinoya-san? I have a visitor for you."

"Ryuu?" He snaps awake, face lighting up at the sight of his buzz-cut, brawny bro walking through the door. "Ryuu!"

"Yuu!" And suddenly they're hugging because Tanaka can stride across the room in negative two seconds. "Ugh, I missed you in the less than one day that you were gone."

Over Tanaka's shoulder, Noya catches sight of Asahi, who's leaning against the doorway, smiling like a proud mom. "Should I leave you two alone, or ...?"

"Uh, for like, five minutes, 'cause I gotta introduce Tanaka to you!"

"Alright, I'll be back in five," Asahi waves his hand, walking down the hallway again.

"So. Is that the hot nurse you've told me about?" Tanaka starts, sitting on the side of the bed by Noya. Noya groans, with a bit of a giggle. "Yes. He's so fucking pretty, is he not?"

"No, he's cute as fuck. I see why you like him," Tanaka laughs, about to sock Noya in the inner elbow, but then he notices the bandaid. "oh, 's'that where he stabbed you?"

"Yeah, but he like ... comforted me through it. It was kinda weird and kinda amazing at the same time. I guess he knows I have a fear of needles now, but he was so caring about it, I --- " Noya buries his face in his hands after Tanaka gives him that look, the 'yeah, you definitely like him' one.

"Oh my god, you're so gay."

"Nah, I'm just, like ... Asahisexual."

Tanaka chortles. "Bro."

"Actually, I think I'm bisexual now, but ... " Noya sighs, "god, I'm so fucking gay at the moment."

"I can tell, dude."

They spend the next few minutes conversing about how Tanaka's been, and then Asahi finally joins them. Tanaka moves to the chair beside Noya's bed, and Asahi sits at the foot of Noya's bed. "Okay, so," Noya begins, taking a deep breath. "Tanaka, this is Asahi." He gestures to the said man. "And, no, it must be made clear that his last name is Azumane, because he 'doesn't want to come off unfriendly to his patients'," he uses physical quotes, looking Tanaka directly in the eyes while doing so. Tanaka nods slowly, Asahi's personality really just starting to set in.

"Asahi, this is Tanaka. You've heard me call him Ryuu like, 24 times already, but I'm pretty sure that's only reserved for close friends, like moi." Wow, when did Noya become French. "But! If all goes according to plan, you'll be, like, best friends by the time I'm out of the hospital." 

Noya can literally feel the radiation of Tanaka and Asahi's smile from either side of him.

"Oh! And, Ryuu, Asahi plays volleyball too."

Tanaka's hands go straight to his head. "What?!"

''Yeah, I was the wing spiker, and the ace ... " Asahi trails off, like this is the eighth time he's had to explain this to him.

"For what team?!" 

"Oh, no, I never actually played professionally, or in high school, since becoming a nurse was my main goal, but I did have a little group of friends that I used to play, like, beach volleyball with. We also used to go to this local gymnasium, the one right here in Karasuno."

"You mean the one we play at ...?" Noya slowly makes eye contact with Tanaka. "Also the one I broke my ankle at? Holy shit."

"Fate!" Tanaka suddenly yells, loud enough for Noya to cover his ears. "Oh, sorry, fate." He repeats in a quieter tone.

The next thirty or so minutes consist solely of Tanaka cracking jokes that hit a bit too close to Noya's crush, Asahi laughing at Tanaka, and Noya trying to control his breathing because, as said, Tanaka's venturing a smidge too close into Noya's crush zone there. Asahi is either doing an amazing job of acting like he doesn't hear them, or he's just not saying anything about it. 

Noya is desperately hoping for that first option. He does not need these next two months to be awkward. 

"Well, anyways," Tanaka eventually intervenes, standing up and stretching, "I have dogs to feed and training to do, as much as I'd like to, uh, stay and supervise." He gives Noya a sinister grin and is responded to with a half-scowl. "Asahi-san, it was nice meeting you though."

"Oh, uhm, yeah, it was nice meeting you too, Tanaka-san." They bow for a brief moment, a sign of respect. Generally speaking, Tanaka has no reason to respect Asahi. Noya's almost 100% sure Tanaka's doing this because he knows Noya likes him. The thought is almost nice. After patting the ankle that's not injured, effectively biding his farewell to Noya, Tanaka's out the door within the next 30 seconds with a wave.

So now that leaves Asahi and Noya, just sitting there.

"He's ..."

Noya's head snaps over to Asahi, who's staring at the foot of the bed with raised eyebrows. "He's something else. He's, like, just like you."

"Oh, I know! That's why we're so close!"

"Are you two ... I mean, I have no reason to ask this, but are you two dating?"

Boy oh boy. Suddenly Noya's pulse skips 20 beats. "Uh --- no! No, no, no, me and Ryuu, we're n-not like that. I mean, it's not that I'm like, not into guys or anything, I mean, I --- I don't even know yet, I still have to figure that out, like I know I like girls, but --- "

Asahi's laughing. Full on laughing. "Okay, okay, it was just a question, I'm sorry."

Gay panic. Or, bisexual panic. Noya's not sure which. Wait, does Asahi even identify as a guy? Does that, like, change Noya's whole sexuality if he doesn't?

"Okay, fine, you asked me a question, I get to ask you one --- do you ... do you identify as a guy?"

That sounded so much more horrible out loud than it did inside Noya's head.

"Uhh ... yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't identify as a girl, I don't identify as, like, genderfluid ... I don't really know. I guess I'm a guy for the most part. Why do you ask?"

"Then why'd you ask if me and Ryuu were dating?"

"Because ... you two have an unexplainable chemistry."

"I mean, so do we, but, like, I'm just here for two months." Noya regrets saying that the instant it comes out his mouth.

Asahi only smiles a bit at that, then counters immediately. "I answered your question, so please answer mine. Why'd you ask what I identify as?" Because he wants to know if you can change his whole sexuality. "I don't know, I guess I kinda wanna know the person that's gonna be taking care of me for a whole sixth of my life." That's a definite lie. Asahi's watching Noya's face very intently, obviously trying to pry out if Noya's lying or not. "... are you sure about that?"

"I am positive." Not really. Noya has to take a mental note to save some plasticware so he can stab that contradicting voice in his head.

"Y'know," Asahi begins, brushing a stray strand of hair out of his face. "I wouldn't judge you for anything."

"Asahi-san, it's okay," Noya says with a bit of a chuckle, subconsciously fiddling with his own fingers. "I wouldn't judge you for anything either. I mean, honestly, I don't even know what I am yet, and I'm just 28 sitting in here with a broken ankle." Asahi breathes a laugh, giving Noya the fondest smile. Noya is screaming on the inside, yep, that's what that random heat in his gut is, nope, he didn't just pop a boner, nope, nope, nope, he's gonna cross his legs while Asahi's smiling and beaming like a precious baby and he's not gonna make a big showcase of it.

"So ... does that mean you're, like ... unattracted to anyone?"

"Oh, no, no, no, that's not — that's not what I meant," Noya fumbles to explain, hands slicing through the air to make separate 'x' motions. "like, I know I like girls, but ... guys is still something I'm contemplating. Like, I've had boy crushes, yeah, but I've never actually legitimately dated a guy before." He's oversharing and he knows it.

Asahi smiles a little, only softly, and Noya instantly mentally re-reads what he said and analyzes to see if he could've offended Asahi at all. "And it's not like I wouldn't date one! I — I would, given if I could find a good-looking guy who has a nice personality and doesn't have only one brain cell, 'cause, y'know, having one brain cell is my thing and I can't have any competition."

There's a pause before Asahi speaks. "What, are you saying that being good-looking and having a nice personality isn't your thing?"

Huh.

Is Asahi fucking flir — 

Motherfucker. "A — " Noya opens his mouth like he's about to say something, and he can't find the words. He wants to scream at Asahi and punch him in the shoulder and grab his face and kiss him and ask him if he'd be willing to be in a relationship all at once but he can't do most of it because that's his nurse, he's still not sure if Asahi's gay and that's like. Not his thing. Noya doesn't chicken out but he isn't even gonna try that. 

What he is going to try, though, is something equally dumb. "Like I said," he continues, "you can't compete with me in dumbassedry because I've already won that Olympic event but I can't compete with you in the good-looking-and-great-personality Olympic event because you've already won." That probably came out really jumbled but Noya was thinking on a whim, give him some credit for being moderately smooth.

Asahi mimicks Noya's expression of absolute confusion, and Noya watches the blush spread up his neck, to his ears and across his cheekbones. "Aha. Wow." Asahi just stares at Noya's ankle, eyebrows raised and mouth open in a grin. "Wow, Nishinoya-san, I didn't peg you as the type, although I've only known you for about two days." Yeah. They have only known each other for two days, but it feels like they've already known each other for two months.   
"What do you mean, you don't peg me as the type." Noya deadpans, squinting ever so slightly.

"The type to come up with horrible flirts in retaliation to pretty good ones."

"Uh, wh — excuse me, Mr. Fuckin' 'Going-Off-Anything-I-Can-Get'! That wasn't a 'pretty good' flirt!"

Asahi smiles and his brows knit a bit. "I already know your full name, Nishinoya-san, there's no reason to say it again. Anyways," Asahi interjects abruptly, glancing at the FitBit on his wrist and tapping it a few times. "It's about 10:45, so I'll see you soon for lunch, alright?" He takes Noya's face as permission, apparently, because Asahi pats his knee as he exits, leaving Noya to revel in whatever the fuck that was. 

And Asahi, precious, dear sweet Asahi, did confirm that that was flirting.

Needless to say, he was speechless.

Noya, Noya, Nishinoya Yuu, at the hands of his hot-and-sweet-ass nurse, was speechless for the first time in a long time.

☆

Lunch was fairly normal, consisting of Asahi acting oblivious to the fact that he was outright flirting with his patient, Noya trying his hardest to act cool and Asahi also picking up on that, and Asahi making some weird faces at what was served for lunch today. He didn't blame Noya much for not wanting to eat overly-sweet sweet-and-sour yakitori with a side of watery mashed potatoes, and Noya was moderately grateful for it.

Didn't change the fact that he was still hungry, though, so Noya ate while listening to Asahi's stories about the grueling eight years of medical school he suffered through. "I met a few good friends of mine up there, and surprisingly enough, I even took care of some of my friends on the down-low. I wasn't a registered nurse or anything, but I'd let some of my old friends bunk at my house and I'd basically give them rehab, but ... off-brand rehab." Asahi smiled a lot when he spoke, and Noya didn't realize he was smiling too until he caught a mirror of himself against the reflective metal bars framing his bed.

"I could've become a physical therapist if I really wanted to, and I suppose that I did for a while, being that I was literally helping my friends recover from their injuries, but being a nurse seemed a little more ... enveloping to me, if that makes any sense. Like, it wasn't that being a nurse was always something I wanted to do, but it kinda hit me like a brick that that was finally what I wanted to do in life, that I wanted to help people while they were in a state of crisis and not necessarily after they were in a state of crisis. And besides, one of my friends is already a physical therapist, so, y'know."

Anybody else saying any of this, Noya would've immediately zoned out.

"So what do you do, Nishinoya-san?"

Noya, in the end, processed that at a quarter of the speed he was supposed to. "Hm?"

"Do you have a job, or — or a profession or anything like that?"

Noya picks at a piece of overcooked meat with his plastic fork. "Uh ... honestly, I'm still working on my college degree because I'm trying to play volleyball professionally, but for now, I work with Ryuu at his parents' restaurant, so I know a little 'bout, like, cooking and stuff."

"Ah. I probably couldn't make sushi properly if the instructions were laid in front of me," Asahi jokes, earning a snort from Noya. "who're you planning to play for?"

Noya hums slowly, chewing and swallowing the meat the best he could. "I dunno yet," he responds dumbly. "I was kinda eventually planning to travel some more."

Asahi chuckles, shaking his head. "You're so ... much. You remind me of a plot that suddenly takes thirteen different turns, Nishinoya-san."

Noya slaps a hand to his chest, hitting himself so hard that he almost regurgitates his food. "How dare you. Also, thirteen's an unlucky number, Asahi-san. You could do twelve or fourteen turns, but not thirteen."

"And you have triskaidekaphobia!" Asahi exclaims, putting his face in his hands. There's a muffled 'oh my god'. "Would it be weird of me to mention that my niece turned thirteen last week?"

"How old are you?!" Noya nearly chokes on his tea.

"I'm 29!"

"Old man. Tell me about your niece."

So Noya sits there, bending his plastic fork into weird braids and downing the rest of his tea while listening to Asahi's story about his beloved niece, Kogara, how she looked just like her mother and how she acted like a Tasmanian devil.

☆

It didn't take too long for Noya to realize that he couldn't take his mind off most bad things with Asahi not there. He'd guess that it was probably because having a constant force of positivity and compassion played a big chunk of his effort to get better.

It was the third week he was there, and the only reason he really kept track is because Asahi, in all his sweetness, hung a calendar to Noya's wall. It was a Thursday, so he had been there three weeks and three days. Yet another sleepless night, although Noya had convinced himself that he had grown accustomed to being away from his own bed.

It was also one of those nights where Noya became aware of every second that passed on the clock on the wall. He had reached over to his left to grab his phone because he couldn't read the clock, and accidentally dropped it.

"Fuck," he mumbled, reaching onto the ground to pick it back up.

2:24 in the morning and he'd only gotten about an hour of sleep.

The phone (along with the moonlight) had illuminated the room, and aside from it being dusk, Noya could make out most features in the room. He traced his eyes along the cracks in the walls, down to the counters, down to the little tray — 

Oh, no. There's panic setting in. Needles. He sees needles and syringes and sharp objects. No, no, no, no. He doesn't realize he's repeating the word out loud until it starts to rumble his chest. He doesn't like needles. Noya's never understood what his problem is with them, but he doesn't like them. He'd take a beating with a brick stick before he had — before — 

A sob of a groan comes out, and Noya leans forward, trying to calm the onslaught of the possible puke that's about to come out. "No, no, no," he says in a monotone like a mantra, and his face heats. There are tears running down his face and — he doesn't feel — 

What could've possibly been a scream is muffled by sobs, and he crosses his arms over his head, touching his knees with his face. He's sweating and shaking and hot and cold at the same time and he feels like he wants to puke but he can't do anything, he's just forced to sit and do nothing and suffer through this. He tries desperately to get his breathing under control, trying to remember the 4-4-4 breathing method his mother taught him, but he can't, he can't — 

He doesn't realize that he's already surged backward to press the red 'in case of emergency' button. He doesn't realize that he's pushed it so, so many times that it's like his lifeline. He doesn't realize that Asahi is comforting him within the next minute. He can't hear what Asahi's saying — or asking? — over his own sobs and gasps. He doesn't even register that Asahi's weight is pressing against him, and that he's being cradled and rocked. All he knows is that hugs feel nice and Asahi makes him feel safe and he wants to push down the heat in his throat and get this excuse of a pathetic panic attack over.

Why is he panicking?

He doesn't even know after it's finished. It takes a long, rough while of Asahi stroking his hot back and shushing him so sweetly until Noya can finally calm down, and he's realized over his several attacks that there's never a good part of a panic attack; not the beginning, where it inevitably starts, not the middle, where it feels like a constant crescendo and it plateaus at the worst point of panic, and not the end, where he's left shaking and detached from the world.

"Noya, Noya," Asahi murmurs, brushing away strands of hair that stuck to Noya's forehead. 

He doesn't remember a good rest of his coming down, but he knows that Asahi at least spent an hour petting his hair, his back, his neck, helping him to the bathroom so Asahi could clean his face and mumble sweet words to him. Past the haze clouding his mind and his ears, he can hear a feminine voice call through the bathroom doorway. "Azumane-san, do you got him?"

"Yeah," Asahi says back, not tearing his gaze from Noya. "Yeah, I've got him, Yachi-chan."

"Oh, okay." 

Noya spends a while burying his face in Asahi's chest, trying to match his breathing to Asahi's. He has a moment of embarrassment and he almost doesn't swallow down the urge to punch something. It's so stupid. He's having a panic attack over something as stupid as needles. And doing this, he's probably fucking up his relationship with Asahi because this is really stupid and Asahi probably thinks he's stupid and the whole situation is stupid because he hasn't had bad experiences with needles but — "Noya. Noya, breathe, sweetheart, you're hyperventilating."

Asahi's stabilizing hand smooths down Noya's back, and eventually he's being walked back to his bed and laid back down before he knows it and before he wants to be. He wants to just stay with Asahi and cuddle with him and be comforted, though he knows Asahi has a job to do and Noya's probably being selfish. Asahi asks a few gentle questions, mostly along the lines of 'are you feeling any better?' and 'do I need to call Tanaka?' and Noya isn't quite ready to talk yet so he responds with a nod or a shake of the head need be.

He's trembling. He's not sure if it's from the cold of November or because he's detaching, but he's shaking hard enough to feel through the bed. "C'mere," Asahi offers, fumbling with the sheets to get Noya under them. "Are you hot or cold?"

Noya shakes his head, but when Asahi grabs his hands it's another story. "God, you're freezing ..." Asahi stands up and walks away and just as Noya is about to fumble a weak protest, he realizes that Asahi's digging through the built-in closet to find a blanket for him.

Some pang resonates within his heart.

Asahi makes sure to tuck Noya in, not leaving an inch of skin uncovered aside from his face. When he's satisfied, he pulls up a chair and sets it by Noya's bed, near his head. He sits there, and much to Noya's surprise, leans in and pets his hair again. "Hey. I'm gonna go take that tray out, alright? I'll be right back, I promise."

Noya nods, shifting a little. He's exhausted. He was tired before, and even if he couldn't sleep, the cortisol spike tired him out completely. What seems like years later — he's losing his sense of time — Asahi comes back, sitting in the chair again and remaining silent. "Thank you," Noya manages to rasp, after a minute of silence aside from the other nurses and doctors in the hospital. The sound seems to take Asahi aback for a second. 

"Don't worry about it, Noya."

Asahi gives him the fondest, sweetest, most gentle and pure smile known to man.

☆

Noya blinks in and out of sleep. For the first two times he wakes up, Asahi's still there, looking half-asleep himself, so he figures he only slept fifteen minutes at a time. Though the third time and so forth, Asahi isn't there, his door is shut, and Noya is left with a strangely empty feeling inside.

☆

Morning comes soon enough, and this time he hears that feminine voice he heard the other night. What did Asahi say her name was? Noya can't fight through the drowsiness to figure it out. "Nishinoya-kun, good morning! It's time for your breakfast," he hears, and as he's blinking to consciousness, he sees a blonde, rather short and petite girl. She has a smile on her face, so that at least eases Noya a little. That still doesn't shake the question on his mind, despite only just waking up: "Where's Asahi?"

"Azumane-kun had to leave early this morning, maybe four or so?" She explains, setting Noya's breakfast down on the movable tabletop that hovered slightly over his bed. "He said he was dealing with some family issues."

"Oh." Asahi stayed with him for an hour. That was longer than he expected. "Uh, also, what's your name again?"

"I'm Yachi! You can call me Yachi-chan, or Hitoka-chan, I don't mind anything." Yachi is very bright. Noya smiles, grabbing a fork to pick at the omelet on his plate. "Thanks, Yachi-chan. Do you know how long he'll be out?" 

"Hmm ... I don't know yet. I could give you his number, if you like?"

Noya doesn't hesitate to jump at the opportunity.

When Yachi's finally left and he's stomached what he could of his breakfast, Noya lays pent up in his bed. He's debating texting Asahi, because if it's something in his family, he probably wouldn't be in the best mood ... but Noya was a bit lonely. He eventually decides to text Ryuu, because no harm done there.

rolling thunder (7:32 am): well that was interesting as fuck

He waits a while and figures that Tanaka's still asleep, given that it's only 7:30 in the morning.

Noya slumps back into his bed, letting out a puff of air. 

For the first time in a long while, Noya is unarguably lonely. 

☆

It's the same routine for a few days; basically what Asahi would do, but Yachi style. Once Tanaka came back over, but that was really the highlight of his three days. He wakes up, he eats breakfast, he texts Tanaka, he finds a way to entertain himself until lunch, he eats lunch, he does a little bit of rehabilitation, he finds a way to entertain himself until dinner, he eats dinner, he finds a way to entertain himself until he passes out, and he repeats the process three whole times before Asahi ever comes back. 

It doesn't feel like three times. It feels like three hundred million billion times.

Though he supposes when he wakes up to a more masculine voice that he's missed for three hundred million billion years, he practically leaps out of bed. "Asahi!" He just about shouts, quite literally almost attacking Asahi in a hug, who's just trying to do his job. 

"Noya!" Asahi says back with equal enthusiasm, setting the plates down and wrapping his arms around Noya. 

"I missed you," Noya mumbles after a minute of reveling in Asahi's embrace. He knows how much he needed a hug but didn't necessarily expect it so suddenly. "I missed you while you were gone."

"I missed you too," Asahi says into Noya's neck, and Noya gets a pleasant tingle up his spine from the vibrations of Asahi's voice.

Asahi smells ... somehow both sweet, masculine, and like a hospital at the same time. He smells like cologne, laundry detergant and scented strawberry, is it, hand sanitizer? It smells fruity, whatever it is. His personality and his looks definitely match his smell, if that makes any sense. Noya deadpans. He's been here a month now, how has he not noticed how freakin' good Asahi smells? Oh well. Probably just Noya being a sap for the time being. "How's your ankle feel?" Asahi asks as he breaks away from the hug to observe Noya's injury, a small smile coming to his face. "It looks a lot better now. It's almost December; you've made a lot of progress in a month."

Noya almost flushes for two reasons. One, he gets extremely high off praise. Even if it's something miniscule like 'you did good today' or 'good job' or 'you've made a lot of progress', he instantly gets blushy and giggly and very, very attached. Two, he realizes that it's already been a month. It's already been a whole month of Asahi being a sweetheart and taking care of him and checking in on him and genuinely caring for him.

He almost chokes on his own spit. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. I - I mean, my ankle feels good. And I'm glad that I've made progress."

Asahi smiles a little, though this time it seems off. Is it weird that Noya's started to memorize how much the corners of Asahi's mouth turn up when he's happy, flustered, laughing or sympathetic? It's always that same warm, friendly look, and although it sends chills up Noya's spine every time he sees it, this time is sadly ineffective. "Uh, Asahi-san? You doin' okay?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. Why do you ask?"

Noya pauses. He doesn't really know. "Um ... you just looked a little off. Was it — " his voice catches in his throat, and he hesitates for a second — "was it something about why you were out those few days?" He almost winces at Asahi's expression. His forehead wrinkles a bit and he fidgets with his fingers. He doesn't say anything for a harsh moment, and Noya's about to interject when Asahi speaks up. "Would it be okay if I didn't tell you right now?"

Noya feels a clenching in his heart. It quite literally feels like a chunk of his heart is being ripped out, and the pain must've shown on his face because Asahi fumbles for words. "It — it's not that I don't want to, or, or, because I don't trust you, but — I just — " He takes a deep breath and encases Noya's hands in his own. "I do trust you, and believe me, I'd tell you, but it's just that it's a whole lot of shit to be randomly placing upon you and with your panic attacks and probably general uncomfortableness being up here, I don't want to make you any more overwhelmed than you already are."

Noya squeezes Asahi's hand. "What do you mean? Your issues aren't gonna make me panic."

"I know that, but it's — it's kinda a touchy subject. For you." Asahi sighs. "For you and me, now."

Noya thinks about that for a moment.

And then it hits him. "Is it needles?"

"I ... not for my situation, but it might be for yours ..."

Noya feels the color drain from his face. "You know about ...?"

"Y — yeah."

Asahi rubs Noya's hands, slowly trailing them up his wrists. "My sister." He stops, but Noya looks up at him and he continues. "My sister, was the one who died. That was why I wasn't there to stay with you that whole night you had that panic attack, and believe me, I would've, but ... I randomly got that call from my mom and learned that my sister had been hospitalized; they said she had a stroke. I mean, she was kinda middle-aged? She was 47, and she wasn't necessarily in the best conditions, so it was kinda inevitable. So we went all the way to Tokyo and stayed with her but she started seizing out? Like she was convulsing a whole lot — " 

Asahi's voice cracks a little, and he clears his throat — "and, y'know, they did their thing and tried to regulate her but her blood pressure and temperature got too high, and ... " Asahi trails off, and he palms at his eyes. He doesn't talk for a while, and Noya knows it's at least a few minutes because the only thing aside from their breathing is the tick of the clock on the wall. 

"Though my niece, Kogara, the one I told you about? My brother is taking care of her. She's got plenty of Azumanes to go through before she'd even be considered to be placed into foster care." Asahi chuckles quietly, though it's not amusing. He's sad. "I'm assuming you know how I feel."

Noya knows, Noya knows exactly how he feels but can't put the words together. "I — Asahi — "

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to — "

"I do know how you feel." Ah, he just interrupted Asahi. "Losing someone close to you. Yeah. It's gotta be hard," he massages Asahi's hand, rubbing his words into Asahi's skin. As if he probably needs them, but whatever. Though Noya knows that he needs this, that Asahi needs someone to relate to, that can understand where he's coming from.

"I watched my dad slowly kill himself. Obviously I was only nine at the time, but I still have conscious memories of literally being left with my siblings because my mom had to go drive around outside, middle of the night, in the freezing cold to go get my heroin-addicted father, who'd be god knows where at that given moment."

Asahi doesn't say anything, so Noya keeps rambling. "He worked all the time, like, seven days a week, and it wasn't to make ends meet. I'd say I had it pretty well as a kid, because my dad was a construction worker and my mom was a lawyer, but a whole lot of his check was spent on drugs. And he wasn't abusive about it or anything, but it was just really scary kinda seein' his addiction and — and he'd do anything to get drugs, so it was an endless cycle of 'dad's home for a few days — ' which was a very rare occurence, — 'mom and dad have a fight, dad goes out to get high with some people he doesn't even know, mom brings him back home', and it starts over and over and over again."

"There were also occasions where he would bring the stuff home and shoot up with it, but he'd only do it in his little office thingie, so if I were to get up to go pee or to get water or something in the middle of the night, I'd get a look at him, sitting in his chair with that bandana tied around his arm and — and — "

Noya doesn't realize he's shaking until Asahi pulls him in for a hug. "T — That's why I don't like needles. It's not — nothing personal, and I'd probably conquered my fear of needles since I was getting my annual flu shot, but just ... he overdosed, on drugs, by injecting himself with a needle, and I see him every time lying in that casket. I remember my brothers and sisters crying and I remember them not liking our step-dad because they were afraid it was just going to be our dad all over again. And then I get all shaky and start panicking like this — oh, god, I'm probably making this about me now, sorry Asahi-san — "

He's soothed into silence by a gentle shushing from Asahi, and Noya closes his eyes and tries to match his heartbeat to the rhythmic drumming of the one next to him, right by his ear, god Asahi is so warm, Noya feels so safe like nothing can hurt him. "All's well, love. We're gonna get through this, yeah?" Noya can hear the reverberations of Asahi's voice against his chest, and he unintentionally nuzzles his face into Asahi's scrubs. 

"Yuu," Asahi singsongs quietly.

That's the first time Asahi's ever used his given name. Noya's heart skips a beat or two hundred, and he almost doesn't process Asahi's question. "Hm?"

"We're gonna get through this, right?"

Noya takes a breath.

"Yeah, yeah, we are."

☆

December 12th marks one of the most important days of Nishinoya Yuu's life.

It starts off casual, per the usual, with Asahi waking him up for breakfast and a drowsy Noya answering half-assedly to 'how do you feel?' and 'did you sleep well?' The breakfast is moderately appetizing today; a bagel with grapes and ... more milk. Noya's gotta be above and beyond normal calcium levels with how often they give out milk here. 

Asahi talks to him about his life growing up and how he did in school (he was an 'a honor roll' student), what his favorite subject was (literature), what his least favorite subject was (history), yadda yadda. He talked about how his mom would always tape every ribbon he got to the refrigerator door, and how his older siblings would write things like 'good job' or draw a thumbs up on it.

That was another thing Noya learned, was that Asahi was the baby of four.

"I have one brother and two sisters ... er, had two sisters, but, you know what I mean. You know Shoumidori, she was 47, Ichiya, who's my second oldest sister, is 32, Shinko's my older brother, he's 30, and hi, I'm Asahi and you know that my age is 29 because I overshare a whole lot of things with a patient I've only known for a month and a half, but feel like I've known for a year and a half."

Noya almost chokes around his bagel trying not to laugh. He covers his mouth while saying, "nah, 's all cool. I like hearin' abou' y'r family anyway."

Asahi smiles one of his signature beaming smiles. "Aw, thanks, Noya."

"Call me Yuu," Noya insists as he prods at a grape.

"I — really?"

"You called me Yuu a while ago," Noya shrugs, chewing slowly. "plus, I think we're pretty good friends now, right?"

The vulnerability is out, and although Noya knows that Asahi isn't going to downright declare them enemies, the rejection is opportune, bubbling up Noya's throat like scorching hot, sticky black tar. He almost can't swallow properly.

Asahi's mouth is stuck open while he's staring at Noya, and he pauses for a moment. All that comes out is the most gorgeous, sweet, genuinely pure giggle that Noya's ever heard in his entire life. It makes his pulse spike, makes blood go straight to his head and makes him a little dizzy. He has to stop looking at Asahi, god, anywhere else, c'mon, c'mon — 

Holy shit it is snowing outside.

"Asahi-san!" Noya jumps up the best he can, and almost takes the food with him. "It's snowing outside!"

Asahi gives him a look like, yeah, it is, why? 

"Nononono, you don't understand! I've never seen snow before! Like, real, thick layers of snow! I've only ever seen a lil' bit of white on my rooftop in Miyagi when I was a kid but it's actually snowing here!" Noya pushes the table aside, hoisting both legs over the side of his bed. "C'mon. I wanna get up and see it."

"Noya — Yuu, that's not — what if you hurt yourself?"

"I won't hurt myself 'cause you're super strong! Now, come on!"

After a brief moment of puppy dog eyes, Asahi caves in, encouraging Noya to put his feet on the floor best he could.

Noya almost screams. "Holy fucking shit, that floor is cold!"

Asahi chuckles. "Yeah, it is. I could pick you up, if you like?"

"Aw, c'mon, Asahi-san, that's like ... babying me."

"Mmm, not quite," Asahi says quickly before scooping Noya up, much to Noya's dismay. "Aww, you're just as light as you look," Asahi gushes, and a second of fumbling, blushing and fussing later, Asahi carries Noya over to the window, leaning against the wall and setting Noya down on the ledge of the window.

Noya instantly tries to pry open the window.

"Those windows don't open, Yuu," Asahi says fondly as he crosses his arms over his chest in a know-it-all manner.

"But I wanna, like, feel it! I wanna feel the snow!"

Asahi closes his eyes and tips his head against the wall, in thought. "Give me a second. I have an idea." Asahi disappears down the hall, so Noya takes a moment to stare out the window. God, he really hoped that it would open, but whatever. He presses his forehead to the glass and gets a pleasant chill down his spine; he always did like the cold. Blankets of white, covering the ground entirely, littering the rooftops of nearby apartment complexes. Noya could even make out a man shovelling his driveway, which was about halfway engulfed in snow.

He smiles.

Soon enough, Asahi returns, wheeling a wheelchair with a black hoodie in the seat. "I am not letting you go outside in a short-sleeved nightgown, Yuu, you're gonna catch a cold. So I got you my hoodie." He hands it to Noya, and Noya examines it for a brief moment.

It's black all over. The only noticeable design is the kanji for 'love' on the front. "Love?" Noya says, more like a statement than a question. Hm.

"Yeah. It might be a little big on you, and it kinda might smell like the inside of a locker, sorry about that ... "

"Asahi-san. The last thing you need to be doing is apologizing." Noya pulls the hoodie over his head and instantly feels ten times warmer. Asahi stares at him for a moment, and they make eye contact, and wow now they're both blushing. Noya swears that Asahi whispers something that sounds strangely like 'cute'.

"Alright, c'mon. We're going outside for two seconds and then I'm gonna wrap you in every one of the blankets in that closet." Asahi picks Noya up yet again and sets him in the wheelchair, and off they go. "Why do I need a wheelchair? My ankle's basically healed," Noya asks at one point, rolling his ankle a little bit to prove himself. It feels weird because he hasn't really moved it in forever.

"Yeah, basically, but not quite. Plus, I don't wanna risk you getting injured. Better safe than sorry."

It seems oddly quiet in the hospital. Aside from the pretty nurses, loud moms in the lobby and surgeons with the occasional bloody gloves, most things were still. Hell, Noya didn't even know this place had an elevator, though he kinda got the gesture that they were on a higher floor from the view out of his window.

"Whee," Noya says, sticking his arms in the air as they descend onto the ground level via said elevator. Asahi doesn't even suppress the giggle that comes out of his gorgeous, gorgeous mouth.

Noya's gushing. He's somehow in love.

Yachi joins them for a brief moment, ruffling Noya's hair a bit and asking Asahi what they're doing, though when they step outside it's just them.

Cold. Yep. Crisp and cold. Just the way Noya likes it. He'd get up and do flips if not for his broken ankle. Meanwhile Asahi audibly shivers from behind him. Asahi steers Noya along the sidewalk, settling him next to a bench, and Asahi sits down. "Don't run off on me or I'll call security," Asahi says, and Noya responds with 'is that a threat or a promise?'

He's never worked a wheelchair before since he's never had to be in one, but he gets the memo that it's pretty easy once he strolls over to a patch of snow on the ground. Like he's been planning to for about ten minutes, he runs his fingers through the snow.

He gets a pleasant tingle from his fingers to his spine.

Then he gets a great idea that makes that tingle turn devilish.

He looks behind him. Asahi's on his phone, so yes, this will work. Hopefully.

Ignoring the numbness in his fingers, he scoops the snow into a ball and packs it as firmly as he can.

Bless Noya's aim. He sends out a prayer as he draws his arm backwards, throwing with all his might.

The snowball hits Asahi square in the shoulder.

Asahi looks surprised, eyebrows raised and eyes closed. He has a moderate 'done with your shit' look on his face. "Excuse me?" 

Noya just grins back.

"Excuse me!" Asahi yells louder, putting his phone in his pocket, a small smile threatening to surface. 

Noya gets the idea that he should probably start moving away from a very 'angry' Asahi, so he starts pumping at the wheels, screaming 'bye!' as he speeds off. In about fifteen seconds, Noya looks behind him.

Asahi is sprinting. Noya is in immense danger.

He starts screaming when Asahi catches up with him, but apparently Asahi is Usain Bolt because he lunged an extra step and caught the grips of Noya's wheelchair. "Nishinoya Yuu!" He sounds incredibly out of breath, and that smile that was eventually going to happen, happened. Asahi's grinning. "What in the world — boy!" Once Noya comes to a complete halt, Asahi grabs a random chunk of snow off the ground and generally hits Noya in the chest. 

"You understand that's not gonna do anything, right? This is your hoodie, Asahi-san."

Asahi exhales a long time, and he looks like he wants to either slap Noya across the face or kiss him all over his face. Noya can't pinpoint which. "I don't care. Vengeance was mine." He walks forward and leans down a bit, brushing snow off of Noya and his hoodie. In response, Noya wipes at Asahi's shoulder, pleased that there's no real wet spot on his scrubs. He doesn't want Asahi to actually be cold. 

"You got snow in my freakin' hair." Asahi strings his fingers through his hair, pulling a few strands loose as he steers Noya back to the lobby, up the elevator, down the halls, and back into his room. They get a few lop-sided looks from the other faculty. Once Noya's back in his bed, Asahi takes his hair down and scolds Noya about his hair playfully.

"C'mere then," Noya offers, spreading his legs enough and patting the bed in between them. "lemme put your hair up."

"But you're my patient. I'm not gonna ask you to do something for me."

"Trust me, Asahi-san, it's fine."

Asahi sighs. "Are you gonna tie my hair in knots or can I actually trust you?" He narrows his eyes, though he slinks over to the bed. 

"Hmm, you'll find out," Noya replies, taking the elastics from Asahi and adjusting Asahi into a proper position. He laces his fingers through Asahi's hair and takes the time to realize that holy shit, his hair is soft. And it smells good. Noya doesn't even have to lean in and smell it and be weird to know that Asahi uses some fruity smelling shampoo. It practically radiates off his hair.

"Have you always had hair this long?" Noya murmurs, gathering Asahi's hair from around his nape.

"Mmm," Asahi hums. "I don't recall a time where I ever had short hair. I don't mean, like, grown out kinda short hair, I mean like your hair. Like naturally short hair. My hair's always been kinda long and my second year, it was growing like a weed." Asahi chuckles quietly. "Yeah. It was chaos, but all the girls liked my hair. They always wanted to know what soap I used and some of them tried to hit on me for my hair, but, uh, I'm not interested in girls much ..."

Noya's heart flutters, and he's vaguely aware of what the kanji on Asahi's hoodie stands for. "You're not interested in girls?"

"I mean, not really ... In fact, I'm interested in guys more than anybody, but oh well. I know you're interested in girls, at least a little bit."

"Whaddya mean, 'at least a little bit'?!" Noya is so glad that Asahi can't see his red face as he pulls Asahi's hair through the elastic band a few times.

"Well, that's what you said! You said you were interested in girls but that you might be considering guys. Join the dark side."

"The dark side!" Noya exclaims. "Is that the normie term for the gay side?" 

"Nah. In fact, that's the professional term for the gay side." Asahi replies nonchalantly, and Noya can't help his laugh. He twists Asahi's hair and curls it around the base of the ponytail, spreading the other elastic band to make a bun. "Voilà." To emphasize his success, Noya leans in and presses a kiss to the center of Asahi's freshly crafted bun. "I have created greatness."

"Did you just ... kiss my hair?" 

"Yeah. Gotta kiss my masterpiece."

"Wow," Asahi says, drawn-out and sarcastically. "my patient whom I have bonded with is calling my hair a masterpiece, but not me ... wow, I see how you feel about me now, Yuu ..."

"Aw, c'mon Asahi-san, you and I both know that's just your pseudo-way of asking for a kiss. I know you want me, but Christmas is in less than two weeks, so then you can get me under the mistletoe so you can smooch my pretty face. I know." Noya's basically fuckboy-talking him, wow, his standards have decreased severely.

Asahi stares at him again, with that same expression he had when that snowball hit him. "Really."

Noya raises his eyebrows. That window doesn't open and he couldn't get far in the halls so he has nowhere to run now. 

"Okay, Yuu. We'll see." Asahi leans in, only enough to notice, and narrows his eyes. "I'll be seeing you for lunch soon. Also apparently under the mistletoe. You're goin' down. You're challenging the best kisser in this hospital."

"Huh, I don't know, Yachi might take the cake on that one."

Asahi scoffs and heads for the door.

"Hey, 'sahi, you want your hoodie back?"

Asahi pauses, doorknob in hand. "No. Keep it."

Then he exits, and Noya is, yet again, for the eightieth time in six weeks, lovestruck and dumbfounded.

☆

Christmas can't come soon enough. 

Tanaka comes to the hospital the day of and brings Noya a present, which is a lava lamp, but it's orange and really, really sparkly. It reminds him heavily of his libero uniform. Asahi insisted to hook it up, so now Noya chills in his room with non-stop sparkles flashing in the corner of his eye.

He decides not to tell Tanaka about the, uh, fuss with Asahi, though there's a constant pocket of adrenaline tingling along his back the day of Christmas. It's almost as if he's waiting for Asahi to live out his promise. Every time he sees Asahi throughout the day is a state of what-if, and he knows Asahi knows, which is probably why breakfast and lunch are so normal. Asahi's denying him.

Somehow, Noya loves it.

He's been participating in small Christmas activities around the hospital, which includes making a little ornament to hang on the huge Christmas tree in the lobby. He made sure to draw a lightning bolt and use 'hella glitter', according to himself, because rolling thunder and all. He has a tiny tree on his bedside table, and Asahi made him an ornament that he's been looking at for the past hour.

It's the same kanji that was on Asahi's hoodie, 'love', on an orange background. There's silver glitter outlining the kanji, and a small heart next to it.

Noya's been blushing about it for a long, long while.

"Yuu," Asahi singsongs as he comes strolling in the door unexpectedly with a small box in his hands. Noya almost jumps and drops the ornament. "Hey, Asahi." He hangs the decoration back on a stale tree limb, turning around to face Asahi. "Whatcha got there?" 

"Something you're gonna like. Or, two things you're gonna like." Asahi smiles as he sits down, handing the box to Noya. "Merry Christmas," he says, doing jazz hands. Noya smiles, because that's just so Asahi, undoing the lace fabric on the box. It's simply a white box with a black lace, probably just bigger than Noya's hand. There's a little object in a black string-bag inside the box, but the black is nearly opaque so it's impossible to tell what's inside, plus there's a really, really tight knot on the string so Noya can't open it.

"Hold it up to the light," Asahi suggests.

So he does, squinting at whatever the fuck Asahi has gotten him, that is oh-so-expertly crafted in a barely visible casing — 

Is that a mistletoe.

Just as he's about to ask, Asahi's mouth is on his. It's like a sports crowd when their favorite team scores in Noya's head. Fireworks are going off. People are cheering. He doesn't even realize that Asahi is kissing him until his brain catches up to real time. Everything he's wanted in the past two months is right here, right now, happening!, god he's gotta stay in the moment. He doesn't want to forget this.

Asahi's lips feel so soft and his mouth is so warm and placing his hands on Asahi's shoulders only feels right. He takes in the beauty that is Azumane Asahi and tries to revel in the moment, grounding himself as much as possible so he can remember this. Noya is so fluttery. What in the world.

He tastes like coffee and smells like everything good in the whole world.

Nishinoya Yuu is possibly, very possibly, in love.

The most bittersweet part is that tomorrow is the last day he gets to see, to be around, to experience the wonder that is Azumane Asahi.

☆

He was incredibly right and incredibly wrong at the same time. 

He was right about being in love, but that was not the last day he would ever see Asahi.

Saying his goodbyes to both the clinic and Asahi, after developing a strong attachment to them both, was rougher than sandpaper. He had gotten a hug and best wishes from Yachi and a few other pretty nurses, but one specific pretty nurse was a bit different.

Asahi had just sat there on Noya's bed for a while, Noya's hands in his.

"So you kissed me," Noya reiterated; he still couldn't believe it, "and now I have to leave you."

"You'll be fine," Asahi said, brushing a strand of hair out of Noya's dim face, "you're in good hands, I promise. I know who you're going to, and trust me, you'll love him. Hopefully a little less than you love me. J - Just don't fall in love with him though, because he's married."

Noya was about to open his mouth to ask who it was, but he shut his mouth with a click. "Don't push it. I can take that kiss back at any moment."

"Sure you can." Asahi squeezed Noya's hands a few more times.

"Anyways, since Asahi's the bearer of all knowledge, who is this guy?"

"His name is Suga. Er - Sugawara. Koushi. He's my friend of, what," Asahi blew out a puff of air, "six years now? He's really sweet though. He kinda reminds me of me, except he's a little more confident and he will give you a kick in the pants to get you where you need to be. But I'm sure he'll love you, since you're very outspoken and confident yourself. Also, um, on a more serious note ... he's had psychology training."

"And?"

"Meaning ... " Asahi takes a breath. "I want — no, I'd like for you to maybe open up about your dad and your fear of needles. It'll make you feel better, I promise.

"Fuck, I was almost gonna tap that until you said he was married ..."

"Yeah, he's married to another one of my childhood best friends." Asahi chuckled nervously. "It's kinda like we're the tri-force of ultimate gayness. And you can't 'tap that'." Asahi had used visible air quotations, resuming his gentle massage on Noya's hands immediately after. "I've already kissed you. Once I've kissed you, I'm committed."

Noya's heart had actually skipped a beat, and his fight or flight sensation had run wild. "Committed? Wait, how are you gonna stay committed if I'm, like, leaving you?"

"Uh ..." Asahi thought about that hard. "Do you want my number? I could call you and we could hang out on the days I'm off."

"Aha, about that. Yachi-chan had already given me your number."

Asahi shot him a confused look, 

So Noya had pistol-whipped his phone and typed six words in:

'kiss me if you get this'

Noya would've been damned if Asahi's phone hadn't pinged and he didn't lean in and press their lips together again. 

☆

Noya's a little emotional on the car ride to the physical therapy center with Tanaka. This Sugawara guy was sweet, the way Asahi described him, but it still didn't ease the sadness of having to leave someone he had literally just met two months ago. Though Tanaka bombarding him with questions like 'what was the kiss like?' and 'are you two dating now?' and constantly turning the radio up did put Noya in a significantly better mood.

The physical therapy center, from the view of the window, is small. It has a Starbucks built into it, so that's good. Tanaka might enjoy that while Noya's busy getting his ankle torn off by a supposed 'angel'.

A married angel. He has to remember that before he goes and get attached to Sugawara, too.

Tanaka rolls up into the parking lot, making a plane sound while turning. "Karasuno Physical Wellness & Rehabilitation Center." He announces, putting the car in park and popping the trunk to get Noya's crutches. Yeah. He's finally able to like, move now. Once that's done, they're making their way across the parking lot and into the building, surely enough. Noya's actually moving a bit faster than he'd been expecting, but the occasional drop or stairway is still a touch difficult to navigate.

The center is warm. It's really warm, and it feels great as opposed to the brisk December, almost January air outside. The interior walls are a strange shade of green, almost similar to the color of the scrubs Asahi wore that looked so, so good on him. There are random yoga balls and treadmills and various equipment strewn across the area to the right of the entrance, and he assumes he's supposed to go up to the cute receptionist in front of him.

"Welcome to Karasuno Physical Wellness & Rehabilitation, do you have an appointment?" Her voice is a strange type of feminine that almost makes Noya's stomach drop.

"Uh, yeah, my name's Nishinoya Yuu and I have an appointment with a Sugawara ...?"

She types at the computer keyboard and smiles. "Yes, Nishinoya-san, your appointment with Sugawara is at 11:30. You can go sit in the waiting room in the door to your left, and he'll let you know when he's ready for you."

"Thank you," he replies, and steers Tanaka towards said waiting room.

They chill for a few minutes on the couches and talk. Noya takes a minute to flip through the random Japanese model magazines and stares at the motivational posters on the walls until a slender, yet kinda built grey-haired guy opens the door. "Nishinoya?" Noya stands up and grabs his crutches. "Hi." Did he seriously pick up the slight awkwardness out of nowhere. Really. C'mon, Noya.

"Hi!" Who Noya's assuming is Sugawara strides over to shake Noya's hands with an unnecessarily bright demeanor. "I'm Sugawara Koushi, and I'll be your physical therapist for a while."

This guy is just like Asahi.

What.

☆

Noya groans as Sugawara bends his ankle in a mostly normal way. He does his best to comply with Sugawara's instructions of 'breathe, just breathe, Nishinoya,' and arches his back off the mat occasionally. It's not painful so much as it is entirely uncomfortable. He knows that these movements and gestures of his ankle are completely normal, but for not really moving his ankle for two months, they don't look very normal.

Though he knows that Sugawara knows what he's doing. The guy showed Nishinoya all his certificates, and Noya learned that Sugawara is both a master in psychology and physiology. "So, like ... you're a therapist? Like, a psychologist?" Noya tries to break the rather thin ice between them, given that Sugawara is only second to Asahi in the nicest guys he's ever met.

"I'm not a therapist, per se," Sugawara gently corrects him with a stretch of Noya's ankle, earning a hiss. "but I am certified to be one. All I do is I take injured people and help them recover ... technically I could give you physical therapy and an actual mental therapy session at the same time. Speaking of injuries, how did you hurt your ankle?"

"Hurt it doing a rolling receive I have called 'rolling thunder'. I know you know what that is because I'm sure you also play volleyball." Noya says non-chalantly, wincing at a firm roll of his ankle.

Sugawara stops. "You been doin' your research on me or something?"

"Nah, Asahi told me."

"Asahi was your nurse?!" Sugawara nearly shouts, and Noya swears he can hear a chuckle from Tanaka, who's sitting in a chair scrolling through social media nearby. "Azumane?"

"Yeah. We kissed and he literally gave me his hoodie."

"What?!" Sugawara's voice is starting to distract other physical therapists and their patients in the room. "Asahi kissed you. I do not believe that."

"I have his number for proof," Noya replies, reaching for his phone in his pocket, but he's interrupted by Sugawara. "No, no, I do too. If you don't mind taking a little break, I'm about to call him. I don't believe it."

Noya shrugs. "Break sounds fine."

Sugawara dials Asahi's contact, and puts him on speaker. "Hey. Are you on break?"

Asahi's slightly pitchy voice comes from the phone, and what, Noya's heart recognized it before his brain did. "Uh, yeah. Are you?"

"Yep. I have your patient."

Asahi chuckles. "Oh. Noya?"

Sugawara puts his fist to his mouth. "Alright, first off, that was a bold assumption. I could've been talking about anyone. And two, you're on nickname basis now? Are you guys dating or something?"

Asahi lets out a long 'uuuuuh'. "First and foremost, yeah, but you wouldn't call me for any general patient because nobody pays as much attention to their nurse for two months as Noya does, so. Number two, yeah. We've known each other for two months. And, uh ..."

"I thought the great Azumane Asahi waited until marriage to kiss his spouse." Sugawara teases. Now Noya understands why Asahi's friends with him.

"We're basically married," Noya chimes in, and his face burns as soon as he says it.

Tanaka and Sugawara both look at him, and there's about thirty seconds of silence.

Asahi lets out a long breath on the other end of the line. "The next time I see you."

Noya speaks before he really means to. "You'll see me the next time you're off. At the Starbucks. Here. I know you like coffee 'cause that's what you tasted like. And then we'll get ramen because I also know you like ramen." 

Suga's eyebrows could not physically go higher on his forehead. "Are you kidding me?!" Asahi shouts, and Noya can practically see the blush spread across his face. He can see Asahi's embarrassed little look, and he can sense Asahi covering his face with his hands in that adorable, awkward manner of his.

Noya can see this date.

"Nah, I'm not kidding. Love you."

Love you. Does Noya love him? 

"I — I mean, I'm off on my birthday, the first, if you wanna go get coffee and ramen, but I'm not going unless I get a birthday kiss, so ... L - Love you too, I guess, yeah, it's a date, anyways, Suga, you need to get back to rehabilitating your patient ..." The rest of Asahi's sentence is like background noise.

Noya can hear static. He can hear air. His senses have been heightened so much that he is walking on clouds. He's reminded of Asahi's gentleness and compassion and kindness and empathy and his slight anxiousness and awkwardness but ... that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter, Asahi's flaws don't matter when there's so much of Asahi to enjoy.

Nishinoya Yuu can see, can clearly envision this date. Not until Sugawara's done with him though. 

Noya remembers the 'swift kick in the pants' persona Asahi described Sugawara as having.

He swallows hard. 

They're eventually back on the mat, and Noya is, therefore, restraining himself from screaming (Suga keeps reassuring him that he's doing great).

☆

He still has to restrain himself from screaming (even when Asahi is reassuring him that he's doing an amazing job).

Especially when he's living with Asahi in a small apartment with lots of neighbors below and beside them.

Especially when he's being fucked into the bed.

The only sounds aside from Asahi's quiet grunting are Noya's panting and occasional whimpers and the bed squeaking and whining under Asahi's gentle, yet unforgivingly unrelenting pace. "Asahi," Noya whispers, a little too gone to form real words. "it feels so good, I — I can't — "

"You can, my angel," Asahi breathes across the shell of Noya's ear, pressing his chest into Noya's back and embracing him even more. "you can. You're doing amazing for me," he praises, slowing his pace by a beat but still driving deep into Noya, pressing all those sensitive and deep spots Noya had only dreamed about touching. "such a good boy for me, Yuu."

Asahi's weight is pressing him into the bed, and Noya swears that's only spurring him on to orgasm.

He mewls uselessly — Asahi isn't going to stop pleasuring him for the world, and he knows it — and tries to buck his hips up a little more, eventually finding a rhythm that makes Asahi snap his hips noticeably faster.

If only Noya could hold a thought together, but that's inevitable at this point. "Asahi, I — hnn — "

"Come whenever you want to, love. Let me make you feel good." Asahi reaches below Noya and grasps his cock as lightly as he can, using Noya's precome as lubricant to smear up and down his length. Noya isn't sure whether the noise he made in response was a sigh or a moan, but Asahi's hand and the sound of skin slapping against skin and Asahi's obviously more frequent gasps and grunts make everything euphoric.

He's in heaven.

"God, Yuu, I'm so thankful for you," Asahi murmurs against Noya's nape, pressing sweet kisses down his shoulders. "so glad I met you."

Something inside Noya snaps and his vision blacks as he squeezes his eyes shut so hard he can see stars. "Ah — " his voice cracks, and one thrust against his prostate does it — "ahhhhh — Asahi!" His cock kicks, and he can subconsciously register ropes of come striping up his stomach, he's fucking vibrating, it feels so good, what is Asahi saying — 

"Good boy, Yuu, good boy," Noya finally makes out as he's coming down, his body still trembling with aftershocks. He only momentarily takes into mind how Asahi's breath hitches and his hips stutter hard to a gorgeous staccato of thrusts. He moans into Noya's neck — it sounds like he's moaning 'Yuu' helplessly, though Noya can't quite guarantee it — and although Asahi's using a condom, Noya can feel the warmth of his come and unintentionally clenches around him.

Asahi leans up and growls, riding out the remaining waves of his orgasm, pressing into Noya only softly and with care despite his probable urge to go buck wild and crazy and just fuck Noya senseless.

Sometimes Noya wishes he would, but he appreciates the gentle side of Asahi more than he thinks he would a more assertive side.

Not that he wouldn't love being ruthlessly manhandled and told what to do, but he loves his sweet, sweet Asahi and his unyielding patience and love.

Noya's feet thump against the bed, and he goes limp. All's well and Noya's sleepy when Asahi pulls out, but soon Asahi's peppering his face with kisses and making Noya giggle and genuinely fall in love that much more. 

"Didn't hurt your ankle, did I?" Asahi murmurs, flipping Noya around to where he's on his back.

Noya lands with an 'oof', but then socks Asahi in the shoulder. "Asahi. My ankle's been healed for two years. It's fine."

"And we've been together two years," Asahi whispers, kissing Noya on the lips for a moment, then pressing his face into the crook of Noya's neck. "two whole, wonderful years that I wouldn't trade for the world."

"Would you trade it to — "

"Nope." Asahi interrupts immediately.

"Asahi! You didn't even let me finish my sentence."

"I don't have to. I just said I wouldn't trade our relationship or you for anything."

They lay there for a moment until the stickiness becomes uncomfortable. "Do you want a bath?" Asahi finally asks, and Noya contemplates that.

"W'time is it?"

Noya can feel Asahi's head shift to look at the clock on the bedside table. "3:32 in the morning."

"Nah. You have work in, like ... an hour and a half. I wanna cuddle with you."

Asahi makes an 'aw' sound. "Sweet boy." Asahi leans up once more to kiss Noya's cheek, but then pulls up and away with a wonderful squelching sound that makes the both of them cringe and share horrific eye contact. "That's so bad," Noya says with a laugh, making a over-exaggerated 'eeeeew' and scooting over to Asahi's side of the bed, away from the slight mess he left on the bedsheets.

Asahi just shakes his head and shuffles to the bathroom, returning with a warm wet cloth, sitting on the side of the bed and wiping Noya's body clean of sweat and come. He pauses for a moment after he's sufficiently cleaned Noya and just stares with a fond look on his face. "You're so beautiful."

"Quit it." Noya throws a pillow at him.

"I only speak the truth," Asahi insists, throwing the cloth into the laundry hamper for the most part. "now, c'mere. Let me love all of you."

"I love all of you," Noya mumbles, inching closer to Asahi and burying his face into Asahi's chest.

"I love all of you as well," Asahi answers, wrapping his arms around Noya, embracing him in the sweetest way possible. Noya entangles their legs and presses himself against Asahi as much as possible, trying to be enveloped entirely.

He blinks for what seems like a short time and then Asahi's not there. Sunlight is streaming through the blinds, birds are singing, kids are shouting outside, and Noya can faintly hear the bounce of a basketball from the park right behind the apartments.

Noya figures he must've blacked out completely.

He rolls around for a second and hits the wet spot from last night.

Almost throws up a little, okay. What time is it. What am I gonna have for breakfast. Where is my boyfr — 

Okay. It's 9:43, he doesn't know what he's gonna have for breakfast, and there's a little note by the alarm clock. Noya props himself up on a sore arm and reaches for the slip with his other hand. It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust and it also takes a moment for him to realize that this is Asahi's good morning. Asahi had always left a note when he had to leave in the morning and Noya wasn't awake with him, wishing Noya a good morning and to go prod around in the kitchen and make something for breakfast. As if it were a recurring joke, he also mentioned something like 'don't break your ankle while I'm gone' because ... that was how they had met. Noya reads it.

Good morning/afternoon (depending on when you wake up), sunshine 🖤

I hope you're not too sore at the moment, because you'll definitely be feeling it later ... Haha. Just kidding. Please don't be in pain. Please get ice or a heating pad or anything you need. Or text me. I'll pick up medicine or anything you need, I promise. It's a part shift for me today; my shift ends at one so I'll be home by about one thirty.

Anywho, this is just your first time out of a million billion that I'm gonna A) tell you I love you and B) tell you to not break your ankle.

I still can't believe you were ''just a patient'' to me once.

Love you.

Get some food, angel.

\- Asahi   
XOXO

Heat churns in Noya's gut. His face flushes as he reads the note over and over again, until it's burned into his mind. 

☆

Noya occupies himself by, first and foremost, stripping the bed of those sheets and blankets and throwing them in the washing machine with extra detergent. Those awful, blotchy, stained sheets and blankets. In a productive state of mind, he slinks to the closet to find their nicer sheets, the silkier ones they use after they've demolished the others with come stains and tears and probably tomato sauce.

Ah, yes. Of course they're the ones on the high ledge. He grumbles. If only Asahi's tall ass were here.

In a stroke of genius, Noya finds a broom and pokes the bag of sheets until they fall. A few things including empty shoe boxes, random pillows and socks fall, but something that really surprises Noya comes tumbling down as well. His crutches. Huh. It's been a while. He wonders why Asahi put them on the ledge inside the closet, when he could've just put them on the bottom, but it doesn't make much difference to him. Honestly, he's glad to have found these. They remind him of a slightly worse, yet mostly good time at the hospital. 

He's reminded of the sporadic crush he had on Asahi. He chuckles, because now they're dating, and Noya's having to wash the bedding because Asahi never fails to make him come so hard that he drips everywhere.

It's fun while it's happening, but it also really, really sucks to clean it up afterwards.

He sets the stuff back in the closet and kicks it shut, throwing the pillows off the bed and eventually putting the expensive sheet on, many attempts later. He hates having a rectangular mattress, because he can never get the dimensions of the sheets right; he always put the short side of the sheet on the long side of the mattress and vice versa.

He strolls around the apartment while he's waiting for the sheets and blankets to finish their cycle, then realizes that he still hasn't eaten breakfast. Asahi would've butchered him by now. 

He rummages around in the cabinets and eventually settles on a bowl of instant breakfast, which consists mainly of egg, meat and cheese that you just throw in the microwave for a minute. He looks at his ankle for a second while waiting for the microwave to beep. There's a scar from the bone of his ankle to just above his ankle. Badass. 

As he's chilling, eating his breakfast and watching the same action series he always does in the morning, he puts the load that was previously in the washing machine in the dryer. Doing laundry is never fun, much less entertaining, so he finds himself back on the couch, resting his eyes and taking in the scent and feel of the apartment.

It's a cozy place. That goes without saying, considering there are bookshelves, area rugs, coffee tables, and all the other miscellaneous details that only Asahi, in his thoughtfulness, could really have produced. Ignoring that the walls are the standard apartment off-white with the occasional mold stain, there's a build-up of dust and grime around the toilet, there are dust bunnies under the couch, and the television looks like it hasn't been cleaned since it was bought, Noya can't really point out any imperfections here.

Though now that he has, it's hard to ignore them.

Does he spend until 12:50 in the afternoon fixing the bed, spraying down the bathtub with instant cleaner, sweeping the floors, organizing the fridge, wiping the television until it shines, scrubbing the ever-loving fuck out of the toilet, arranging the closet floor, washing the dishes, dusting the mirrors and washing dirty clothes? Yes, yes he does.

Does he brutally pass out on the couch while a trashy yaoi plays in the background? Yes, yes he does.

Is the only reason that he wakes up because the basketball that those kids were playing with sets off a car alarm? Yes, yes it is.

Though he awakens (mostly) sweetly. It takes a moment for him to realize that Asahi's already home (it's 2:02 according to the television), he's apparently draped a blanket across Noya's body, and judging by the sound of rushing water and the slight steam making its way into the living room, he's taking a shower. Noya cringes. Yeah. He forgot they didn't take a shower this morning. But then — 

The metaphorical devil on his shoulder says, "go join him."

The metaphorical angel on his shoulder says, "hey calm down, he's just trying to take a shower and recover from work."

He blinks the drowsiness away. Honestly, when has Noya ever listened to the good side of him?

"Welcome home, baby," Noya raps on the bathroom door twice, pushing it open slightly with his foot. The smell of both incredibly masculine body wash and cleaning products lingers in the air. "sorry I was asleep, I did a lot of cleaning while you were gone."

"Angel! I missed you!" Asahi sounds excited. "Thank you for cleaning. And I don't blame you for falling asleep after because ... this place is ridiculously dirty. Er, was ridiculously dirty, but then my precious boy fixed it."

All these pet names and Noya's face is alight. He can't form words, but his throat pushes a flustered giggle out. "Only thing I haven't cleaned is me, so ... mind if I join you?"

He's expecting a stutter or a delayed answer. Instead, he gets, "not at all, honey," and clothes are flying in all directions almost instantly.

"Hi." Upon entering the shower, Noya can't help but smile at the sight before him: a completely naked Asahi, soap suds covering his hair and parts of his soft, smooth skin, and that tiny smile on his face that he always bears when seeing Noya after a long day of work.

"Hey, sweetie." Asahi loops an arm around Noya's neck and pulls him in to kiss his forehead. Then Asahi's other arm is wrapping around the small of Noya's back and now they're hugging in a shower, completely naked, two o'clock in the afternoon. "I missed you," Asahi murmurs after a moment, grabbing the sponge and applying some soap to it. "turn around babe."

Noya does as he's told. "You say that everytime you come home." He winces at the cold gel across his spine, but relaxes when Asahi massages it against his skin in a soothing manner.

Asahi hums, the low sound echoing off the shower walls. "I do, don't I?"

"Yeah."

"That's because I mean it, Yuu," Asahi lightly brings a hand down against Noya's forehead, and Noya takes it as he would a scolding mother. "I do miss you. Every second we're not together. Even if we've had a huge fight, I still want to be with you all the time because you make me happy."

"Even when you're bein' a little dork," Asahi growls in a playful tone, wrestling Noya around a bit.

Noya laughs. "Asahi, quit it, you're gonna break my neck too."

"Oh, we wouldn't want that; I might just have to kiss you again. Is that what you want, Yuu? Is that it?" He kisses all over Noya's neck, on his shoulders, anywhere he can find until Noya's giggling again. "Asahi, s — stop it!"

"Never," is all he gets as a reply.

☆

After quite a while of taking great care in washing each other, they're finally out of the shower and strewn across the couch. They've made dinner already, which of course was ramen. Asahi's idly petting Noya's damp hair, and Noya's laying across the couch with his head on Asahi's lap. Asahi's in basketball shorts and one of his old shirts, and Noya's in a tank top and underwear. This is pretty good for them, considering that Noya didn't even want to put clothes on. This is what happens when you live with Nishinoya Yuu. 

They're watching some dumb romcom because, again, this is what happens when you live with Nishinoya Yuu.

Actually, this is Asahi's place, but the romcom was Noya's idea since he's a dork.

And ... they're basically married now. He means, Asahi's said he's going to marry him, so ...

Noya flips over onto his back, staring up at a half-asleep Asahi. His eyes are closed and his face is propped up against his hand, but Noya knows he isn't asleep because he's still stroking Noya's hair. It's actually kind of beautiful, seeing Asahi so adorably sleepy like this.

It's only five, but Asahi has good reason for being so tired.

"Y'wanna go to bed, baby?" Noya says after a moment of staring at Asahi's pretty face.

His voice seems to startle Asahi, judging by the way he jumped slightly. "Oh, um — not unless you want, love."

"You look super tired though." Noya reaches up to stroke Asahi's face, and he seems surprised.

It takes Asahi's brain a moment to comprehend Noya's sentence. "Oh, fuck, I thought you meant — fuck." Asahi covers his eyes with his hands. "Oh my god, I'm even starting to think like you."

Noya raises a brow. "What do you mean?"

"I thought you meant you wanted to have sex." Asahi says between giggles, rubbing at his temples with a hand. "I was gonna look at you weird and ask if I needed to take you back to the hospital and examine your abnormally high libido."

This fucking dork, Noya swears. Asahi's going to be the death of him.

"Medical play? Sexy." Noya grins devilishly, sitting up and propping himself on Asahi's lap. "I'd be down if you were. You can examine me anytime, nurse." He straddles Asahi's hips and tilts Asahi's head up to force eye contact, leaning in and kissing him, somewhat borderline sweetly and sexually.

"Please don't tell me we're gonna ruin the other sheets too," Asahi says quietly.

"Oh, we don't have to. We could do it right here!"

"Yuu, we are not messing up this couch!"

Noya gets a great idea. He leaps over Asahi, over the back of the couch and sprints into the bathroom. He comes back with a towel and drapes it over the couch cushions, making jazz hands. "Now c'mon, you got me really horny being pretty."

"You're gonna find a way around everything I say, aren't you?" Asahi sighs, eyes closed.

"Just know that you said you're gonna marry me," Noya singsongs, stripping himself of his clothes. "Now get over here."

"I'm gonna snap you in half." Asahi towered over him momentarily before leaning down and kissing his forehead.

"Just don't hurt my ankle."

The hospital across the street, the same one he healed at, the same one he met his beloved boyfriend at, the same one that changed his life could probably hear him moaning that night, being broken by the same man who helped him heal.

**Author's Note:**

> THIS TOOK ME.  
> THREE WHOLE WEEKS. i had to double check because it felt more like two months.  
> BUT HERE U GO!! I DID AN ASANOYA HOSPITAL AU, LIKE I SAID I WOULD.  
> jfc this is my second upload of the day. phone sex and then hospital and then more sex bc.... asanoya.  
> BUT!! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT!! i'm not so good at writing abt hospitals and this did take me almost a month so there're probably some spots where you could tell i lost motivation  
> BUT IT'S COOL! BECAUSE I FOUND IT GOOD ENOUGH TO POST HERE!!  
> AS ALWAYS,,,,,, you know the drill  
> UNTIL NEXT TIME!! LOVE YA BUNCHES! THANKS FOR READING!!! ILYSM!!!  
> DANNY!! <3


End file.
